Michael Kirby accepts the role of Patron of Kirby Institute

The Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG has agreed to become the Patron of the Kirby Institute.

Two years after the launch of the Kirby Institute, the new name for the organisation formerly known as the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Mr Kirby has formally accepted the position.

The Kirby Institute's Director, Scientia Professor David A. Cooper, thanked Mr Kirby for accepting the role, saying that the former jurist was a wonderful role model in the field of health and human rights, an intrinsic focus for work in blood-borne viruses and related infections.

When he retired from the High Court of Australia on 2 February 2009, Michael Kirby was Australia’s longest serving judge. He was first appointed in 1975 to the Australian Conciliation & Arbitration Commission and later seconded as inaugural Chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission (1975-84). He was appointed a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal and, concurrently, the Court of Appeal of Solomon Islands. His appointment to the High Court came in 1996 and he served thirteen years.

Mr Kirby has served on many national and international bodies, including as a member of the World Health Organisation’s Global Commission on AIDS (1988-92); President of the International Commission of Jurists, Geneva (1995-8); as UN Special Representative Human Rights in Cambodia (1993-6); a member of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (1995-2005); a member of theHuman Rights’ Judicial Reference Group (2007-9); a member of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights (2004- ); a member of the Eminent Persons Group which investigated and reported on the future of the Commonwealth of Nations (2010-11)and as a member of the UNAIDS Global Commission on HIV and the Law (2010-12). He currently serves as chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights and DPRK (North Korea) (2013-14) and as a Commissioner of the UNAIDS/Lancet Commission on Defeating AIDS and Advancing Global Health (2013-14).